What they found: The word "yeah" — not "accomplish," "drive," "results," or other traditional "power words" — is incredibly persuasive.
The researchers also found that the words "start," "meeting," "people," "give," and "discuss" correlate with increased agreement, while "recognition," "speech," "fair," "flat," "middle," "bottom," and "animals" (!) have the reverse effect.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
"Yeah" is definitely the most surprising of the group. Darlene Price, author of Well Said! Presentations and Conversations That Get Results, says, "Words announce to the world how you feel and what you think about important workplace values like respect, commitment, accountability, gratitude, initiative, service, and excellence." So how can a word like "yeah," which hardly exudes accountability and excellence, get you ahead?
Apparently, it has to do with where in the sentence you drop the "yeah":
Dialogue segments where the word "yeah" is used include: "or yeah, maybe even just a limited multi-colour so it doesn't look too childish," "yeah, if you had one of those, just coming back to your other point about pressing the button and setting off the bleeper in the room," "Yeah if you are holding it in your hand you could do that." [Learning About Meetings]
So "yeah" works best, not as a casual agreement, but as a transition. "Our hypothesis is that framing a suggestion as an agreement with a previous suggestion increases its chances of being accepted," says the study. "That is, if the idea comes across as if it were in line with previous thoughts by others, the suggestion has a higher chance of being accepted. This applies either when attributing the full idea to others, or just the line of thought."
So there you have it: The secret to success is front-loading your sentences with "yeah." Yeah, you've got this.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Why are student loan borrowers falling behind on payments?
Not there yet: The frustrations of the pocket AI
George Foreman: The boxing champ who reinvented home grills
